Along the way, I ran into quite a few classmates.
Apart from two or three faces that seemed somewhat familiar, I couldn't recall anything about the rest.
After so many years, they were truly forgotten completely.
Sometimes, driven by the excitement of being reborn, Chen Pingjiang would want to enthusiastically walk up and greet them, but with the words on the tip of his tongue, he could only open his mouth, nod, and smile.
The familiar basketball court, the familiar teachers' office—memories gradually revived, crawling out from the corners.
Chen Pingjiang was definitely not a good student in the true sense, nor could he be counted as a total slacker.
Since junior high, he dared to sneak out onto the street for all-night gaming sessions of Legend and chatting on QQ after his parents fell asleep, stealthily running back at 5 a.m., surprisingly never getting caught.
In his first year of high school, he fooled around for a year, fighting, skipping class, going to internet cafes—he did everything.
The most audacious thing was sitting in the first row and daring to hide A Step into the Past in his desk drawer, peeking at it through a small hole in the desk, right under the nose of his homeroom teacher, Old Zhai.
He thought the beginning of that book was so good.
At the end of his first year of high school, when students chose between humanities and sciences, Chen Pingjiang dared to choose science despite scoring only 12 in math and 26 in physics, which earned him a severe scolding from Old Zhai:
"You utterly useless thing."
Feeling humiliated at being assigned to the lower-tier class, he spent that summer frantically reading and doing practice problems.
In the first semester of the second year, he listened attentively in class and even forwent bathroom breaks after class to catch teachers and ask questions.
Two months later, in the mid-term exam, Chen Pingjiang surprisingly scored in the top five of the science students in the entire school, dropping everyone's jaw.
The school even sponsored a trip for him to Dongjiang, where he visited Yuhuatai and Zijin Mountain.
Upon returning to school, Chen Pingjiang was requested by the homeroom teacher of the neighboring advanced class.
As if having proven himself, the fellow started slacking off again, copying song lyrics, reading Jade Dynasty, Legendary Rogue...
While others in their final year were nervously reviewing and doing practice tests for one mock exam after another, Chen Pingjiang filled an entire notebook with his own novel and successfully dragged his deskmate, "Little Glasses," into writing with him.
Strangely, this guy maintained an exceptionally stable performance across all four mock exams, finally scoring enough for a decent second-tier university, while his deskmate, Little Glasses, only made it into a vocational college.
Zhou Guanghan tugged at Chen Pingjiang's shirt, pulling him back from his thoughts.
"What is it?"
Zhou Guanghan lifted his chin, pointing not far away.
Chen Pingjiang turned his head and saw a girl about seventeen or eighteen years old.
She was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt, dark green jeans that clearly accentuated her slightly upturned bottom.
Her high ponytail made her look youthful and vibrant, and she stood about 1.65 meters tall.
Her skin was snow-white, her cheeks flushed pink from the heat.
Under her thick eyelashes were a pair of bright, large eyes, beautiful when she smiled, blooming with the spirit and playfulness of dimples.
He recognized this pretty girl; her name was Zhang Xinyue.
He had an impression of the guy next to her but couldn't recall his name.
Chen Pingjiang only remembered that the guy had been slapped by "Erzi" for his cheeky mouth and had pursued Zhang Xinyue quite aggressively, but ultimately couldn't withstand Chen Pingjiang's "third-party" intervention.
After transferring to the advanced class in his final year, Chen Pingjiang bumped into Zhang Xinyue at the school gate one day.
In the sunlight, her incredibly fair, snow-white skin was dazzling.
She raised her arm to shield the sun, leaving Chen Pingjiang completely entranced—a moment he hadn't forgotten even before his rebirth.
From then on, Chen Pingjiang picked himself up and became a "dog-like pursuer," though not an overly devoted one.
Every morning, he'd bring Zhang Xinyue a carton of Mengniu pure milk and shamelessly insisted on walking her home after school.
They had kissed and touched but hadn't gone all the way.
They broke up before the college entrance exam.
The Chen Pingjiang of that year felt the girl was too arrogant, the relationship was too tiring, and she liked to control him.
Chen Pingjiang was admitted to a second-tier university in a nearby city, and Zhang Xinyue went to the provincial capital.
When he first entered college, Chen Pingjiang thought about rekindling the romance and called her dorm a few times.
Later, with the distance between the two cities, plus the over-enthusiasm of the girls at the School of Business, he gradually forgot about her.
In his junior year, Chen Pingjiang visited Zhang Xinyue in the provincial capital.
He wasn't sure if his standards had risen or if she had simply become less stunning to him than before, but he felt nothing, and they cut off contact.
The fact that Chen Pingjiang could pursue the school beauty naturally indicated his own appeal.
He was over 1.8 meters tall.
While not exactly a "great handsome guy," calling him "Little Handsome Chen" was accurate.
He had once been described as having a "playboy face," received love letters from younger schoolmates, and been given chocolates by the class flower.
Moreover, he had mastered the essence of chasing girls:
First: Persistence.
Second: Shamelessness.
Third: Persistent shamelessness.
But humans are inherently perverse.
They love what they can't have more, and they ignore what comes too easily.
Even if the other person was a good girl, he'd find it boring and would go after a fleeting, illusory love, ultimately ending up bruised and battered.
His biggest regret in the last life was not making money.
His father wouldn't retire, even with high blood pressure, just to afford an apartment for him, running a boat for a living day after day, ultimately suffering a cerebral thrombosis.
When he drove all night to Taicheng, 400 kilometers away, the window for thrombectomy surgery had already passed.
He still remembered the doctor's words to him and his weeping mother,
"The patient's cerebral edema is progressing rapidly. We must perform an open-skull surgery immediately to remove the skull cap and release the pressure, otherwise, the swelling will compress the brainstem, and he will die.
The surgery and post-operative recovery will cost about 100,000 yuan. The surgery is very risky; even if it succeeds, he might be a vegetable. But without it, he will definitely die. You, mother and son, discuss it and give me an answer quickly."
His maternal uncle advised his mother,
"Fangjuan, if he could recover, even losing his ability to work, this surgery could be done. But if he becomes a vegetable, have you considered that Pingjiang isn't married yet? What will his future wife think? You two are still young. You'll spend the rest of your lives nursing him, and it will drag you and Pingjiang down. I urge you to think carefully."
Chen Pingjiang, with red eyes and gritted teeth, stated that the surgery must be done, but unexpectedly, within just half an hour, his father's condition took a sharp turn for the worse, and he lost the chance for surgery.
In the end, they reluctantly paid the 4,000 yuan ambulance fee the next afternoon to transfer him across the province back to their hometown.
His father didn't make it to their doorstep before he passed away.
His biggest regret in the last life was not making money and being burdened with a mountain of debt, forcing his nearly sixty-year-old mother to take temporary work in Shanghai, straining her back.
Life is just about two words: *Make Money!*
Without money, you can only see the sweet; with money, you can taste the savory.
Wouldn't the time and money spent on dating be better used for a foot massage?
You spend one or two hundred to treat a girl to dinner, and she thinks you're stingy.
You give a red envelope less than 520 yuan, and she thinks you're insincere.
You can't afford bags, clothes, or shoes, and she thinks you're a pauper.
Brothers, please remember, if you spend this money on yourself, you can be a lord when you go out.
The girl you spend so much money pursuing is very likely being groomed to be someone else's wife.
Seeing it, touching it, getting it, and enjoying it is what's real.
You don't have to force someone to always be with you, but you will always have someone to be with.
That's right, the prototype is me!
(End of Chapter)
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